Poll: Those of you who are not parents, what's the longest time you've spent alone with a child?

Question

And did it turn you off parenthood?

Answer 1

I had to watch my neice who's 16 months for a couple of hours. It taught me how much is required to raise a child. It hasn't turned me off but it put parenthood in a new prespective.

Answer 2

I had to look after my nephew for a whole morning - drove me mad - i love him to bits but there is no way I wanna have responsibility for a child - they can be really sweet but they can be annoying too. Not my thing...

Answer 3

4 days with my little brother and two sisters.

MY mum just went out, she used to do it all the time.

Nah, it made me want kids more.

Answer 4

A weekend.... turn me off to parenthood? Not exactly, but it definitely told me I was no where near ready for that kind of responsibility.

Answer 5

only about 6 hours or so.  no, it didn't turn me off.  the little girl was really sweet & well-behaved.  she's 19 now...gawd i'm old!

Answer 6

I used to be a day care teacher so I would spend 8 hours a day/5 days a week with children of all ages.  (3 months - 5 years).  There are certainly days where I wanted to pull my hair out of my head and drive home, but that experience in general only added to me want of having children.  When it's a good day for them children are amazing.  They have innocent, pure, happy - it's just fun to watch them.

Answer 7

40 hours a week. They don't bother me.

Answer 8

ive babysat nieces and nephews alot. i call it birth control

Answer 9

never thougt about it. i have 2 little cousins i look after sometimes. i love little kids. i'm 16 now, and can't wait till i'm older and have kids, err, technically mg gf's gonna have one, then we're adopting the others, so yeah. heehee.

Answer 10

A small child? not since I was a child.

I took my 14 year old cousin to the Glastonbury Music Festival, that was a nightmare. I realised I would make a bad parent when I saw her new bellybutton piercing and went "Wow! neat!" it just slipped out.

Answer 11

4 hours and I think I 'accidentally' killed it.

Answer 12

I tried to babysit once when I was 12 or 13.  It lasted 20 minutes before I called my mother and told her to take the screaming monstrosity away from me.  The d**n babysitting job was her stupid idea anyway.

That's the longest time I've ever been alone with a child, but I always knew that I didn't want kids.

Answer 13

I babysat for my nephew overnight once so my sister could have a nice anniversary thing.

It wasn't horrible.  He did get out of line, but after I nailed his feet to the floor, everything was fine.....

J/K

Answer 14

hahaha I work at a private school in the aftercare program. Three times a week for 5 hours, with whining screaming kicking biting b*tching crying annoying 1 year to 6 year olds. Oh it's fabulous. At first I was like "WOW I'M NEVER HAVING KIDS" but it's just so cute when they run up and hug you and are so happy to see you. So, I still want kids haha.

Answer 15

Thirty five seconds of the most agonizing moments of my life.